Digital Parametric Emergency Oriented Design — Case Study on City of Mariana, MG, Brazil

Department of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo, Brazil

Abstract: The work presented here was conceived considering the need for emergency infrastructural solutions for Mariana’s environmental disaster. It is a conceptual prototype of an emergency shelter oriented by biomimetic principles and inspired by the fauna of cerrado that characterizes the Vale do Rio Doce, Brazil. Structural analogies were made with the Dasypus novemcintus specie creating an articulated shelter made of retractable flaps that interpenetrate when it opens and closes. The prototype was developed using a fusion of reflection in action methodology and parametrization, graphic programming and algorithmic computation entirely created in Rhino and Grasshopper generative modeling. The main intention of this work is to develop specific design technology to emergency scenarios such as Mariana’s disaster but also to others types of critical events. The project allows many conceptual reflections such as the importance of social responsibility in architectural practice.